On the previous pages I alluded to the complexity of life forms - as you can see, DNA is a great example of this complexity. The cell that contains the DNA molecules is even more complex. Several scientists have calculated the probability of a single-celled animal occurring by chance. There are many reasons to conclude that this can't happen, and that speculation becomes a bit ridiculous. For example as we mentioned above the very conditions needed to sustain life would prevent its formation.

But even if we concede the perfect conditions that would be necessary for the bonding of amino acids, we still face impossible odds. The mathematical odds of a single DNA molecule occurring by chance exceed, even by conservative estimates, 1:10¹⁰⁰⁰⁰. In fact, some scientists have said that it is even greater. Dr. Fred Hoyle, a scientist and one-time atheistic evolutionist, said it this way,

"Life cannot have had a random beginning. The trouble is that there are about two thousand enzymes, and the chance of obtaining them all in a random trial is only one part in (10 to the 20^th) to the 2,000^th = 10 to the 40,000^th, an outrageously small probability that could not be faced even if the whole universe consisted of organic soup." ¹

Here's a simple way to think about how big this number (10⁴⁰⁰⁰⁰) is. The number of atoms in the universe (yes, the entire universe - space, matter - all of it) is estimated to be about 10⁸⁷. If we consider Emil Burrel's conclusion that anything with a probability smaller than1:10⁵⁰ will never occur, it's clear that we are toying in the realm of silliness. This kind of thinking is tantamount to reasoning that if the Scrabble factory explodes enough times, the letters will eventually land so they spell out War and Peace. Ridiculous! Later Hoyle added,

"The enormous information content of even the simplest living systems cannot in our view be generated by what are often called natural processes. For life to have originated on the Earth it would be necessary that quite explicit instruction should have been provided for its assembly."